text:
- Regular Price
- $45.00
- Sale Price
- $45.00
- Regular Price
- $45.00
- Unit Price
- per
Burro Brief (Dark Grey)
STUD Underwear Burro Brief Denim Grey features distinctive detailing such as a zipper at each side to showcase your eye for fine details.
Fabric: 95% polyester / 5% elastane
About STUD
STUD's groundbreaking collections of men's underwear, swimwear, beachwear, and activewear are making waves in lifestyle capitals around the world. From Hollywood to Tapei and from Siingapore to Sydney, STUD is garnering a cult following worldwide. The finest workmanship combines with the most innovative designs to make STUD's collections of underwear, swimwear, beachwear, and activewear indispensable companions of the modern man.
Free Delivery to all continental US destinations.
$10 Flat Rate International Shipping for orders over $250.
$25 Flat Rate International Shipping for orders under $250.
Please allow 5-10 days for regular shipping.
Expedited shipping for a small cost may be selected at checkout.
Our regular in-store policy is 7 day exchange or store credit; however, we realize that if you can't come in to try the clothing on you might not be sure how the garment will fit or look. We are happy to offer an exchange or a refund within 2 weeks of receiving your online order. We always offer free shipping in the US, but for exchanges or returns, we require the customer to pay the return shipping (which is usually a few bucks via USPS).
International and Expedited Shipping is non-refundable.
If an item is marked SALE (Price reduced from original price), that item is FINAL SALE and not eligible for return or exchange.


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One as-yet-to-be-determined day in the future, computers will talk back to us in this manner.
But, thankfully, it would appear that Computers with Attitude are not yet on the near-horizon.
Eric Brown, the IBM researcher charged with training Watson, the supercomputer that famously beat human all-comers in the US quiz show Jeopardy in 2011, has provided an interesting insight into just how hard it is to crack the ever-elusive nut of artificial intelligence (AI).
Speaking to Fortune magazine, Brown said that Watson can readily absorb information far beyond the capacity of any human, but where it struggles is understanding our subtlety of language, particularly the human predilection for slang.
"As humans, we don't realise just how ambiguous our communication is," he said. (To be fair, most users of Apple's Siri have largely deduced this already.)
To test Watson's skills at understanding slang, Brown instructed the supercomputer to digest the Urban Dictionary, the popular website that provides definitions for thousands of slang words, including ones of a particularly profane nature. In one test, Watson mistakenly used the word "bullshit" to answer one of Brown's queries. The Urban Dictionary has now been deleted from Watson's memory.
"Computers are now incredibly impressive at what I call 'micro smarts', namely, very specific tasks involving encyclopedic levels of data but with clearly defined rules," says Nigel Shadbolt, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton.
"That's why Watson was able to win a quiz show such as Jeopardy. But what they still struggle with is knowing how to behave in a generalised situation."
Humans are "superb" at switching rapidly between rules of engagement," he adds. "We live in a mass soup of cultures, rules and contexts. Words such as 'wicked' and 'decent' now take on different meanings to different people.
"In some ways, to ask a computer to know how to use a word correctly in various contexts is the ultimate challenge. The inoffensive use of the term 'bullshit' in the right context is sometimes quite hard to judge for humans. Even prime ministers famously struggle to grapple with the use, or even meaning, of slang terms such as 'LOL'."
This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk
SEE ALSO: This Supercomputer Is The World's Most Powerful Hurricane Prediction Machine

subset: commoncrawl


text: Saving your deployment and installer packages lets you reuse them as many times as needed without having to recreate them. To make a change, such as adding a new product or updating an existing one, just edit the package and save it again. From the library view, you can choose quick actions like download, edit and delete for saved packages.


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Stocks can't shake the blues
Wall Street gives up comeback attempt as global slowdown woes dominate, capping a dismal week.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks slumped Friday, but managed to end off session lows, as Wall Street joined a worldwide market slump on bets that a recession is imminent - if not already under way.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 312 points or 3.6%. The Dow slumped as much as 504 points in the morning, recovered to within 112 points of breakeven and then fell back again by the close.
The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index fell 3.5% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) slid 3.2%. Both stock gauges had posted steeper declines in the morning.
Friday's session capped off a tough week on Wall Street near the end of a brutal month. The ongoing credit crisis, sluggish profit forecasts and falling commodity prices have all amplified recession fears, and the weakness hasn't been limited to the United States.
For the week, the Dow lost 5.3%, the S&P 500 lost 6.8% and the Nasdaq fell 9.3%. With one week left in October, the major gauges are down between 25% and 30% for the month. The major gauges are down more than 40% since the Dow and S&P 500 hit all-time highs a year ago and the Nasdaq hit a bull-market high. All three major gauges are at more than five-year lows. Investor panic is at record levels, as measured by the CBOE Volatility index, or the VIX.
Some analysts think that the market is nearing a so-called bottom, but no one is willing to call it and jump back in yet, said Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Wealth Management.
"In the short-term, everything argues against any significant spike up in stocks," he said.
Dunigan said that longer-term the outlook is better, as inflationary pressures continue to dwindle, some stocks become good values relative to earnings and the economy eventually recovers.
The main questions for investors right now are about "the duration and severity of the current recession and how long this vicious forced selling will continue," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial Group.
That so-called "forced selling" due to margin calls has played a big role in the recent volatility. With a margin call an investor has to either pay back a loan or put more money into an account because a security purchased with borrowed money has fallen to a certain level.
One fast way to raise the cash is to sell something else, such as stock.
Global market effect: Asian markets tumbled overnight, with the Japanese Nikkei losing almost 10%. The Moscow market slumped 14% before the exchange said it was suspending trading until Tuesday.
European markets retreated, with the London FTSE falling 5% after a big drop in the United Kingdom's third-quarter GDP added to recession bets there. (Full story)
"The main culprits that are likely responsible for the selling today (Friday) include weak economic growth in the U.K. and possible forced liquidation by hedge funds and other investors," Sheldon said.
Bets that the Bank of England and European Central Bank will have to cut rates aggressively in the months ahead sent the euro and pound lower versus the dollar. The dollar slumped versus the yen. (Full story)
The U.S. central bank is expected to cut rates when it meets next week. But experts are wondering if the Federal Reserve will lower rates to below 1% for the first time. (Full story)
Oil prices continued to slide, with crude plunging to a 17-month low below $65 a barrel despite news that oil cartel OPEC is cutting production by 1.5 million barrels a day starting in November.
The decline is basically the oil market "forecasting a recession," said Terry Morris, senior equity manager at National Penn Investors Trust.
Jittery markets: Investors were braced for an even bigger selloff in the early going after Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 548 points - which triggered trading limits.
The nervous environment prompted the New York Stock Exchange to post a statement on its blog confirming that trading would began as normal at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Reflecting the jitters, the CBOE Volatility (VIX) index, or the VIX, briefly hit an all-time high of 89.53. But the VIX had improved to 79.47 in the late afternoon.
Clearly, there is a lot of nervousness out there, said Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading. However, it wasn't clear what created so much more nervousness early Friday versus any other day this week.
Partly it was the U.K. GDP report, he said, which was adding to the reality of how global the problems are. "Usually, Europe is reacting to us, but today we're reacting to them."
On a positive note, a report showed sales of existing homes jumped more than expected in September, with investors taking advantage of lower prices. The report also showed that prices continue to fall.
Oil, gas and gold: U.S. light crude oil for December delivery settled down $3.69 at $64.15 a barrel, a 16-month low.
Prices have been sliding since crude peaked at a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11. The decline since then has resulted from speculators pulling out of the market on bets that demand is slowing along with the global economy.
Gasoline prices fell another 4.1 cents overnight, to a national average of $2.781 a gallon, according to a survey of credit-card activity by motorist group AAA. It was the 37th consecutive day that prices have decreased. During that time, prices have fallen by over $1 a gallon.
COMEX gold for December delivery rallied $15.60 to settle at $730.30 an ounce.
Company news: This week has brought the biggest wave yet of third-quarter corporate results. About 140 of the S&P 500 companies have reported.
With 41% of the reports out already, profits are on track to have fallen almost 11% from a year earlier, according to the latest estimates from Thomson Reuters.
After the close Thursday, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) reported quarterly sales and earnings that topped forecasts. But the software leader also warned that sales and earnings for the fiscal second quarter and the full year won't meet forecasts due to the slowing economy. Shares ended with small declines. (Full story)
In other news, PNC (PNC, Fortune 500) is buying fellow regional bank National City (NCC, Fortune 500) in a $5.6 billion deal. National City's shares have been hammered over the last few months amid questions about its solvency following a series of bank failures and mergers.
Privately owned Chrysler said it will cut 25% of its salaried workforce starting next month, and that it could announce other restructuring news in the future amid the auto industry slump.
Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers topped winners 4 to 1 on volume of 1.58 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers 3 to 1 on volume of 2.7 billion shares.
Credit market: Lending rates seized up a bit amid the broad recession fears. (Full story)
Libor, the overnight bank-to-bank lending rate, rose to 1.28% from 1.21% late Thursday, according to Bloomberg.com. However, that still kept the rate below the Fed's benchmark lending rate of 1.5%, which is a good sign for the credit market. Libor hit a record 6.88% earlier this month at the height of the market panic.
The 3-month Libor rate, what banks charge each other to borrow for three months, fell to 3.52% from 3.54% Thursday.
The TED spread, which is the difference between what banks pay to borrow from each other for three months and what the Treasury pays, widened to 2.70% from 2.55% late Wednesday. The spread hit a record 4.65% earlier this month. The narrower the spread, the more willing banks are to lend to each other.
Lending rates had been improving for more than a week, but have stalled over the last couple of days.
Credit froze in the wake of the housing market collapse, subprime fallout and contraction in the bank sector. The lack of available credit has punished the already weak economy, making it hard for businesses to function on a daily basis and for consumers to get loans.
Treasury prices turned lower, erasing morning gains. The decline boosted the yield on the 10-year note to 3.68% from 3.64% Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. At one point, the yield on the 30-year bond sank to the lowest point in its 31-year trading history, to as low as 3.87%.
The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill, seen as the safest place to put money in the short term, slipped to 0.86% from 0.95% late Thursday, showing investors would rather see little return on their money than risk the stock market.
Last week, the 3-month fell to below 0.2%. Last month, it reached a 68-year low around 0%, as investor panic hit its peak.


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More verose debugging messages are sent in the presence of non-zero $ENV{"DEBUG"}.
Takes a status and gets a count of tags with that status
An external dictionary can be used as a means of "pre-populating" and tracking allowed terms based on the widely available Ispell dictionary. This can be the system dictionary or a personal version, but in order to support whitelisting, it must be editable to the process running Koha.
To enable, enter the absolute path to the ispell dictionary in the system preference "TagsExternalDictionary".
Using external Ispell is recommended for both ease of use and performance. Note that any language version of Ispell can be installed. It is also possible to modify the dictionary at the command line to affect the desired content.
WARNING: The default Ispell dictionary includes (properly spelled) obscenities! Users should build their own wordlist and recompile Ispell based on it. See man ispell for instructions.
The tables used by tags are: tags_all tags_index tags_approval tags_blacklist
Your first thought may be that this looks a little complicated. It is, but only because it has to be. I'll try to explain.
tags_all - This table would be all we really need if we didn't care about moderation or performance or tags disappearing when borrowers are removed. Too bad, we do. Otherwise though, it contains all the relevant info about a given tag: tag_id - unique id number for it borrowernumber - user that entered it biblionumber - book record it is attached to term - tag "term" itself language - perhaps used later to influence weighting date_created - date and time it was created
tags_approval - Since we need to provide moderation, this table is used to track it. If no external dictionary is used, this table is the sole reference for approval and rejection. With an external dictionary, it tracks pending terms and past whitelist/blacklist actions. This could be called an "approved terms" table. See above regarding the External Dictionary. term - tag "term" itself approved - Negative, 0 or positive if tag is rejected, pending or approved. date_approved - date of last action approved_by - staffer performing the last action weight_total - total occurrence of term in any biblio by any users
tags_index - This table is for performance, because by far the most common operation will be fetching tags for a list of search results. We will have a set of biblios, and we will want ONLY their approved tags and overall weighting. While we could implement a query that would traverse tags_all filtered against tags_approval, the performance implications of trying to calculate that and the "weight" (number of times a tag appears) on the fly are drastic. term - approved term as it appears in tags_approval biblionumber - book record it is attached to weight - number of times tag applied by any user
tags_blacklist - A set of regular expression filters. Unsurprisingly, these should be perl- compatible (PCRE) for your version of perl. Since this is a blacklist, a term will be blocked if it matches any of the given patterns. WARNING: do not add blacklist regexps if you do not understand their operation and interaction. It is quite easy to define too simple or too complex a regexp and effectively block all terms. The blacklist operation is fairly resource intensive, since every line of tags_blacklist will need to be read and compared. It is recommended that tags_blacklist be used minimally, and only by an administrator with an understanding of regular expression syntax and performance.
So the best way to think about the different tables is that they are each tailored to a certain use. Note that tags_approval and tags_index do not rely on the user's borrower mapping, so the tag population can continue to grow even if a user (along with their corresponding rows in tags_all) is removed.
If you want to auto-populate some tags for debugging, do something like this:
mysql> select biblionumber from biblio where title LIKE "%Health%"; +--------------+ | biblionumber | +--------------+ | 18 | | 22 | | 24 | | 30 | | 44 | | 45 | | 46 | | 49 | | 111 | | 113 | | 128 | | 146 | | 155 | | 518 | | 522 | | 524 | | 530 | | 544 | | 545 | | 546 | | 549 | | 611 | | 613 | | 628 | | 646 | | 655 | +--------------+ 26 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Then, take those numbers and type/pipe them into this perl command line: perl -ne 'use C4::Tags qw(get_tags add_tag); use Data::Dumper;chomp; add_tag($_,"health",51,1); print Dumper get_tags({limit=>5,term=>"health",});'
Note, the borrowernumber in this example is 51. Use your own or any arbitrary valid borrowernumber.


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We all play favorites. We reach for the same skirt, the same jeans, the same flats again and again. And in order to make that reach less time-consuming, we move those favorites to the front of the closet, the nearest shelf, the top of the drawer.
And this? This means that we may be unintentionally creating closet orphans. Why?
Because if you can't see it, you'll forget about it.* That embellished cardigan that you snapped up on clearance after waiting patiently for the price to drop? It's hidden beneath your gray and black ones. That pair of burgundy skinnies you simply had to have? Buried after one wear, overshadowed by its denim-y cousins. And unless you remind yourself - visually - that these items are yours for the wearing, they shall go unworn. And, eventually, you may apply a rule about length of time unworn and donate them without even giving them a fair shake!
If you've got items that still fit and that you still adore languishing unworn, I recommend moving them to the front of your closet, the top of the heap, or even to a wardrobe staging area where they're in plain sight. Getting them out in the open allows you to consider their possibilities, mull how to wear them, consider moving them into rotation.
And if, after a few weeks of this, they still can't seem to worm their way into daily wear OR if you find that instead of sparking your creativity they're simply stoking your guilt, consider your options. Do you want to make a project of this? Set aside some time to workshop a few outfits around these items? Or has this proven to you that they were bought in error and should be donated, handed down, or sold?
Either way, you've just forced a decision. And potentially saved a garment from an orphaned life.
How do you deal with the items in your closet that hide in corners and remain unworn? Does it help to drag them, kicking and screaming, into the heavy-rotation areas of your closet? Or do you just pass them over and eventually stop seeing them there as you reach for your faves?
*Assuming that you have a fairly full closet and are not a minimalist. Some people own 20 total items! They can see IT ALL.
Image courtesy Apartment Therapy.
Sally McGraw is the author of Already Pretty, a daily blog about the intersection of style and body image.


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The 8 million iPhones that Apple sold in China last quarter are a lot like exotic pets: They're cute and they make great gifts for rich young men to give to their girlfriends. But outside of their native ecosystem, their survival prospects don't look very good.
The unexpected sales boom in China (8 million is my rough estimate) went a long way toward offsetting the company's less-than-robust performance in the U.S. market and helps explain Apple's record-breaking profits. Analysts and investors are excited by Apple's performance in China, but predictions of the company's sustained growth there are premature.
In its native U.S. ecosystem, the iPhone functions beautifully. But take it to China and the device just isn't very happy. To start with, more than half of the 30 million iPhone users in China have unlocked their phones (a hint that something isn't right) and are using them on an unauthorized network (China Mobile) that until recently limited them to 2G data speeds. try accessing Youku (China's version of YouTube) on a 2G network. Probably not going to happen.
And then there's the problem of input. Apple's U.S.-centric R&D efforts have failed to produce a Chinese-friendly input system. This is a serious problem, because texting is an integral part of Chinese life. Rather than use the laborious system that Apple designed (reminiscent of early Chinese input systems), many Chinese iPhone owners jailbreak their phones and install third-party software that drastically simplifies the process.
Jailbreaking is wildly popular for other reasons too. It allows Chinese users to download any of the App Store applications for free and facilitates access to third-party applications, which is important because applications designed specifically for China are few and far between in the App Store. Music and movies also can be downloaded for free and shared with others on iPhone user forums.
Siri — the most attractive new feature driving iPhone 4S sales — does not work in Chinese and even struggles in English if you have a strong Chinese accent. Finally, warranties are invalidated by the unlocking and jailbreaking, which is a good thing since 30 million iPhone owners would quickly overwhelm the six official Apple stores in China.
So Chinese users are cobbling together an iPhone experience from a variety of sources, and the overall experience is not very good. The comment Tim Cook made to analysts recently suggesting that Apple is focused on delivering a phone with "off-the-charts user experience that customers want to use every day of their lives" sounds like pure hyperbole from the Chinese perspective.
A lot (if not most) of the new iPhone users in China are women, and many women I spoke to said they had acquired their phones as gifts from husbands or rich boyfriends.
The iPhone may very well be the best smart phone on the planet when it's living in its own ecosystem, but its functionality and user experience quickly dissipate when it leaves its natural environment. and then there's the price — $700 in a country where managers typically make $1,000 a month.
Who in their right mind would buy this phone? I asked 70 mid-level Chinese executives in a class I was teaching. None of the 45 men owned (or wanted to own) an iPhone. But ownership was almost universal among the 25 fashionable women.
The stunning results of this impromptu survey prompted further investigation. Apparently, a lot if not most of the new iPhone users in China are women, and many women I spoke to said they had acquired their phones as gifts from husbands or rich boyfriends.
For a gift that exudes exclusivity, functionality is secondary; slow downloads, sparse content, and kludgy fixes may not be important. Maybe on the next quarterly call, Tim Cook will tell analysts that Apple is now focused on selling expensive fashion accessories.
Recently, when shopping for a phone in the United States, I was tempted by the large, vivid screen of the newest Samsung device. However, I will probably purchase another iPhone instead, because I am locked into the ecosystem. My investment in music and applications, the seamless interface with my other Apple products, my familiarity with the system, all ensure that I will not leave. But in China, where users build their own structures (or opt to only superficially utilize the device), this lock-in does not happen.
All of this is good news for competitors like Samsung, HTC, and Microsoft/Nokia. Chinese consumers are waiting for someone who understands their context to develop an ecosystem that makes smart phones easy to use. It may be that local players like ZTE and Huawei (whose very functional smart phones cost $150) are best positioned to get this system right.
In any case, the winner certainly will not be a company that develops hardware, software, and an ecosystem from a U.S.-centric perspective. with its recent explosion of sales in China, Apple looks like the dominant force in the global smart-phone market. But that dominance could be very short-lived.
Nathan T. Washburn is an assistant professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management.
This post first appeared on the Harvard Business Review Blog.


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Field Experience
Our rigorous field experience regimen is one reason North Central's education graduates are in such high demand. You will impact student learning during your first year in our program, and you'll add other field experiences to your resume each subsequent year. You'll gain invaluable firsthand knowledge, experience and confidence putting theory into practice. You will be given numerous opportunities to develop all aspects of the teaching role, with support from teacher-mentors and college supervisors who will observe your teaching and provide feedback and support, as well as assist you in setting goals for growth.
Each of your field experiences will build on your earlier work and prepare you for the next level, preparing you fully to take over the full responsibilities of teaching in your Residency experience. We will encourage you to become an active member of your school community by attending administrative meetings, teacher induction days, and other activities so you're fully prepared for your role outside the classroom.
North Central has formed formal partnerships with several local school districts to ensure the quality of teachers who will mentor you and evaluate your progress. These experienced educators will supervise and advise you as you develop lesson plans, organize classroom activities, assist with classroom management tasks, interact one-on-one with students and ultimately teach small groups and full classes.
Your field experiences will culminate in your fourth year with an 18-20 week Residency when you'll progress to assume full responsibility for a classroom and all aspects of the teaching role. This stage is analogous to a medical residency.
North Central's Education Department assists you throughout all four years by documenting each course, test and competency that you pass. Upon your final gateway—graduation—the department communicates with the State of Illinois to recommend teacher candidates for licensure. At this point you will be well on your way toward becoming a professional educator.


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Business & Policy
Business Management
US economy set to turn upwards with impacts on oil and commodity prices
In another story from south of the border, at least one financial analyst in the US believes the worst of financial hard times is over in terms of oil and gas prices. At the same time, he cautions the rise in commodity prices is about two-thirds of the way through its cycle.
August 7, 2008 By Delta Farm Press
August 7, 2008
Oil prices, up more than 50 percent since January 2008, are too high but will turn soon, and the commodity price upswing could be about two-thirds through, says Robert Nobles, Synovus Banks.
"Fair value of oil is about $110 (US) a barrel," Nobles said during the Southern Peanut Growers Conference in Panama City, Fla. At $110 a barrel, prices at the pump
would decline to about $3.50 a gallon (or nearly $1.00 per litre in Canadian terms). "We've about hit the peak," Nobles said.
"Consumers are cutting back and when we get through the summer travel season and hurricane season — we should see a (gasoline price) decline."
He said consumer sentiment is poor. "But when sentiment gets poor, look for bargains. The economy is about to turn."
He said financial institutions continue to face troubles for the short term. Wage increases have been modest and below the inflation rate. "Material costs are high. But business debt burdens have been less than consumers. That's why so few businesses are going bankrupt. Companies usually think long term, but that's not happening."
He said short-term profits have done well, except for financial companies. "Corporate profits are trending up."
Commodities, including corn and other grains, have been above the trend line.
"Wheat is valued fairly; oats are over-priced. The upswing is two-thirds through."
Nobles said the stock market decline of some 12 percent since the latest interest rate cut is "against the usual trend. That will turn in time."
Nobles believes the bear market offers opportunities to selective buys. "Recovery will come quickly."
Nobles said the market trend line will continue to be "up over time. The credit crisis now will be another signpost in the chart. Things will turn back to an upward trend."
Nobles cautioned investors not to expect huge rallies during an election year. He said interest rates may increase from consumer borrowers, but the mortgage rate will "stay where it is."
Nobles said 25 percent of the increase in food costs could be attributed to corn and other grains diverted to ethanol. That figure was questioned by audience members and does not compare with other industry estimates that put the ethanol effect at less than five percent.


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The 50 Smartest People of Faith
It's encouraging to see how many truly brilliant and accomplished people in the world embrace the truth of theism in general or Christianity in particular. Thebestschools.org, an online resource for prospective college students, features a list of the 50 smartest people of faith.
I've always thought that pursuing "the life of the mind to the glory of God" was a critically important calling for believers. The amazing people (religious Jews, Christians, and Muslims) mentioned in the article have exemplified that great calling and are an inspiration to all of us. They also remind us how important it is to have a realistic (humble) assessment of oneself.
As we say on the Straight Thinking podcast, the historic Christian faith involves knowledge and is compatible with reason. The Christians on this list help demonstrate that compatibility.


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Here's something very cool from the wonderful world of Adafruit: The Trinket, an Arduino compatible microcontroller platform that's not only small enough to fit in your pocket, it's small enough to lose in your pocket.
Like the similarly specced Digispark, the Trinket features an ATTiny85 microcontroller with 5 IO pins. Unlike the Digispark, the Trinket is a bit more substantial, featuring 3.3 and 5 Volt regulators along with a real USB port and mounting holes. As this is based on the 'tiny85, it's possible to connect this up to I2C and SPI sensors and peripherals
One thing to note about the Trinket is the fact that it's so cheap. Either version of the Trinket goes for about $8, inexpensive enough to simply leave in a project when you're done with it. Given the cool stuff we've already seen created with the Digispark, including a homebrew stepper motor and an Internet meme and lame pun assessment tool, we can't wait to see what's made with the Trinket,


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"Photography is a language we can use to communicate what we are seeing," says South African photojournalist and Canon Ambassador Gulshan Khan. "My projects have always arisen from some sort of gap I see, something I feel strongly about that needs highlighting or commenting on. No matter what I'm photographing, it's always linked to the context of historical social justice and human rights."
Gulshan only became a professional photographer in 2017, but her output since then has been prolific. Her work has focused on subjects including Muslims in contemporary South Africa, as well as a range of issues related to plastic pollution, access to water and sanitation, safe housing, gender and healthcare.
She was the first African woman to be hired by international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), and her images have been featured in major publications including National Geographic, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Gulshan has also worked with non-governmental organisations such as the United Nations Population Fund. She is a National Geographic Explorer and received the HIPA Emerging Person in Photography Award in 2020.


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Every once in awhile, a guitar comes out of left field. In the case of this solidbody electric labeled "Lee Stiles," the throw came from West Virginia by way of Miami!
It was in many ways primitive, but at the same time it was also clearly "manufactured." As it turns out, this was one of the earliest guitars produced by the late luthier who was one of the driving forces behind the arts renaissance called the Augusta Heritage Program, which still thrives in Elkins, West Virginia, Gilbert Lee Stiles. After considerable detective work and with a lot of good luck, Stiles' story was salvaged from possible obscurity.
Lee Stiles, as he was known in the early days, was born in Independence, West Virginia, in 1914. By the age of nine he'd begun working with wood while growing up in a neighborhood of back-porch pickers, so it was natural that he developed an interest in guitars. In a 1994 interview, Stiles confessed it was his boyhood dream to make guitars, though it wouldn't be realized until relatively late in his life.
Stiles spent a good chunk of his working life in trades associated with timber, ranging from logging to turning millwork. By the late 1950s he'd relocated to Miami. Then one day in 1960, he decided to make good on his childhood fantasy. He went out to his garage workshop, locked the door, and built his first solidbody guitar. And there was no Stewart MacDonald in those days, so he had to make all the parts himself. How he made the pickups without specialized gear suggests a bit of exaggeration in the single-day theory, plus paint takes time to dry, etc. Anyway, Stiles showed his new creation – which essentially looked just like this one – to a friend, who then started bugging him to sell it. Stiles subsequently opened his own workshop in Miami and his guitarmaking career was launched.
In the beginning, Stiles concentrated on Strat-style solidbodies. He continued to fabricate most of his own parts, including a lot of the hardware. He wound his own pickups, modeling them after DeArmonds. The scrolled headstock and horns were an early Stiles trademark, and his early necks were reinforced with non-adjustable rolled steel – pretty hefty, with their V "boat-hull" profile because, as Stiles recalled, the only strings he could get at the time were heavy-gauge Black Diamonds.
Partially because he was familiar with woods, and partially because he made a lot of his own parts, early Stiles guitars often feature unusual components. This guitar, which Stiles reckoned was one of his early ones dating back to the beginnings in 1960 or so, has a pickguard made out of what looks like Masonite. Although this might seem like improvising (and it may have been), it's worth noting that in 1960, Masonite was a fairly high-tech material and was being used on guitars made by companies such as Kay.
Clearly, the pickups and adjustable bridge/tailpiece unit were handmade, while things like the tuners were not made by Stiles (here '60s Klusons replace the lost originals). The body and neck are made of mahogany. The unusual fingerboard design is walnut with maple highlight strips. The block inlays are maple, not pearl! And the guitar has a decal logo, a metal sticker that says "Lee Stiles, Inc. Miami/Florida," and it's stamped with a serial number #A0-1002? (last number illegible).
Depending on how you feel about thick V necks, this Stiles is lightweight and its pickups kick butt, with a lot of warmth from the mahogany. This is a great little surf guitar, except for having no vibrato.
There is a bit of an "American primitive" feel to the workmanship of early Stiles guitars, but his skills improved quickly and the workmanship rapidly improved. Circa 1963, Stiles relocated to Hialeah, Florida, and began making flat-top acoustic six- and 12-strings, as well as some very fine carved archtops, harp guitars, doubleneck pedal steels, electric basses, banjos and mandolins. When demand required, he'd employ helpers.
Stiles' designs continued to proliferate, sometimes with scrolls, often with unique scalloped headstocks or other design features. Later solidbodies featured advanced appointments such as German carves and fancy pearl inlays. While this has a mahogany neck, most Stiles guitars sport maple handles. Early on, Stiles created a number of "student" guitars similar to this design, but with a 21″ scale. He even built an 18-string guitar for one customer.
Stiles' flat-tops were particularly interesting, as he got his sound by increasing the tension on the top by arching the backs to the breaking point. He favored Brazilian rosewood bodies and spruce tops. Often, the extra-tense backs required additional bracing.
Basically, Stiles operated a custom shop, so almost anything was possible in terms of design or construction; he made copies of Gibson Flying Vs and wide-cutaway archtops like no others. Guitars from his later years took advantage of the availability of components manufactured by specialists, so he no longer had to make everything from scratch!
Nobody seems to know for sure how long Lee Stiles produced stringed instruments, but in later years he slowed down, and by the early 1990s was mainly doing repair work. About that same time, Stiles was invited by his home state to participate in the nascent Augusta Heritage Program that was being run through Davis and Elkins College, in West Virginia. There, he taught lutherie to young people.
No accurate count of Stiles guitars is available, but by his own estimates he made nearly 1,000 solidbodies and at least 500 acoustics.
Gilbert Lee Stiles was hardly a major influence on American guitarmaking, but he deserves to be recorded, as he did create some really good guitars, and later passed the legacy on through his teaching in West Virginia. And his guitars are a good lesson in paying attention when the next odd axe ricochets your direction from left – or any other – field.
Ca. 1960 Gilbert Lee Stiles. Photo: Michael Wright.
This article originally appeared in VG's Sept. '06 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.


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Japan escaped largely unscathed on Friday after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook the north-east coast. It was, however, a chilling reminder of the 9.0 quake that struck the area in March 2011, triggering a tsunami that killed almost 20,000 people and a triple meltdown at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Initially, the appearance on TV screens of a tsunami warning, and repeated announcements to remember last year's tragedy and flee the coast, prompted fears of a second disaster in less than two years in the worst-affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
Less than an hour later, a tsunami washed ashore in Ishinomaki, one of the hardest-hit towns in last year's tragedy, where the rebuilding process has barely begun. Mercifully, this time the wave was just a metre high. Two hours after the quake struck 150 miles offshore at 5:18pm local time, the meteorological agency cancelled its tsunami warning.


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Kendra Wilkinson RIPS Crystal Harris ... 'I Wanted to Kill Her'
Kendra Wilkinson RIPS Crystal Harris ... 'I Wanted to Kill Her'
Hugh Hefner's new bride Crystal Harris is lucky she's alive ... because Hef's old GF Kendra Wilkinson says she wanted to KILL Crystal for previously dumping the Playboy mogul.
Kendra was on the Big J Radio Show in Montana this morning when the host asked about Hef and Crystal reuniting in matrimony ... and KW blew up, saying, "I got pissed off when she hurt him."
Kendra continued, "That pissed everybody off that she would just leave him and dump him, use him and abuse him." Then added, "I wanted to kill her."
You'll recall, 26-year-old Crystal abruptly ended her first engagement to 86-year-old Hef in 2011 just days before their wedding. The couple patched things up last year and eventually married on New Year's Eve.
But don't worry, Kendra's not holding a grudge -- saying she only wants to see Hef happy.
So as long as Crystal doesn't dump him again ... she should be safe. Probably.


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large knitted cashmere stole with cable; soft and elegant wrap around
How to Clean your Cashmere & Wool Sweater? • Hand wash sweater in lukewarm water using hair shampoo (neutral PH) or liquid washing detergent for wool. Be sure to dissolve the shampoo or washing product in the water before you put the sweater into water. Rinse sweater with a tiny bit of hair conditioner, this will make your cashmere sweater softer. Wash colored garments separately. • Do not bleach your wool garment. • Squeeze gently, do not twist or wring. Twisting a wet sweater will stretch the shape of the sweater. • Blot water from sweater with a dry towel to remove extra moisture. • Dry your sweater flat after blotting, dry it away from heat and sunlight. • Press with damp cloth, using a cool iron, iron from the inside of the garment if necessary. How to store your Cashmere & Wool Sweaters • Before storing your expensive cashmere sweater check carefully for dampness and sunlight. • Fold garments or place them neatly in tissue paper or a plastic bag and store them in a closet away from light, dust and dampness. • Cleaning your garment before storage, fresh stains that may not yet be visible will oxidize and become fixed during storage.. Moths eat only on natural fabrics and consider the stained wool a delicacy. Mothballs and cedar chips help protect wool from moths. • To store a pure cashmere sweater during summer, the most important thing is to keep moisture away, so please do not store your cashmere sweaters in a damp place. A well-sealed plastic storage box (available in most stores) is good enough (a see-through one is better as you can notice that if there is any moisture inside). Make sure the box is dry before you put sweaters in. • To keep moths away, the first thing to make sure is that the sweater is clean before long-time storage. Pay close attention to any food stains as moths are particularly attracted to our normal food proteins and cooking oils. Those moth proofing products are helpful, or simply spray some perfume on a piece of paper and put the paper next to your sweater inside the box. Additional Care Tips for Cashmere & Wool Sweaters Care guidelines: • Don't wear the same garment too frequently. Allow the garment two or three days' rest after a day's wearing. • A silk scarf goes well with cashmere tops and cardigans and can protect your sweater if worn between your neck and garment. A scarf will also prevent powder or other cosmetics stains. • Do not wear a cashmere garment next to rough clothing, metal necklaces, bracelets, belts and rough leather items such as crocodile leather bags. Dress up your cashmere with a silk scarf and pearl accessories instead of accessories with a rough surface. • Pilling is caused by abrasion during regular use. It often develops around elbows, under the arms, and in areas rubbed by a handbag or purse. Soft, fuzzy garments are more susceptible than others. So for cashmere fabrics, some pilling is normal after repeated usage. • To avoid pilling, it is important not to allow the cashmere garment to rub against rough clothing, metal accessories, bags, belts, jewelry or seat belts.. • To remove pills, just manually pick them off. Do not rub or brush a cashmere garment. PLAIDS AND WOVEN CUSHION COVERS : DRY CLEAN !!


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uggbootsclearance.net.co.Ugg Scuffette II Sand Slippers 539210:
Color: SandMaterial: SheepskinThe standard in lifestylish luxury, the Scuffette II features cozy suede, lined with supple sheepskin afor light, breathable warmth. A cork-infused rubber outsole provides indoor durability and the padded comfort at the foundation of UGG®.Collection Details:* Upper:Twinface or suede.* Insole:Genuine sheepskin sockliner that naturally wicks away moisture and helps keep your feet dry. All slippers are fully lined with 17mm sheepskin.* Outsole:Suede, molded rubber or light weight EVA outsoles.Style Details:* Silkee Suede upper with overlock stitch seam detail & heat embossed UGG® logo. Nylon binding, clear rubber with cork outsole.Other:* This product contains real fur from Sheep or Lamb* Fur Origin: Australia, European Union or United States* Real Fur has been artificially dyed and treated* This product is made in China


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The second 2019 edition of Porsche News Update kicks off summer in style with the launch of the new 718 Spyder and 718 Cayman GT4 – two models that share a technical base and deliver an exhilarating, purist, driving experience.*
This year's annual motoring garden party, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, saw Porsche put on an awe-inspiring display of new and historic models, breathtaking Hillclimbs and interactive experiences. Also on show was an impressive line-up of 917 race cars - an iconic Porsche that is showcased in this edition.
If you're planning a trip either at home or abroad this summer, discover the range of accessories available for your Porsche to get you underway, while Porsche Connect, your digital co-pilot, is there to help with every step of your journey.
Whilst away, the Thatcham Category S5 certified Car Security Package including PVTS+ allows you to know the exact whereabouts of your car while Porsche Insurance gives you the reassurance you need if things don't go to plan.
Sustainability is high on the list of priorities for Porsche. Find out how the marque offsets its emissions and how you can get involved.
Discover more in the latest Porsche News Update.
*718 Spyder and 718 Cayman GT4 official fuel consumption (WLTP) (combined): 11.0 l/100 km (25.7mpg). CO2 emissions (NEDC equivalent): 249 g/km.
© 2024 All rights reserved to Porsche Centre Wolverhampton and its licensors.
*Data determined in accordance with the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) as required by law. You can find more information on WLTP at www.porsche.com/wltp . For Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) range and Equivalent All Electric Range (EAER) figures are determined with the battery fully charged, using a combination of both battery power and fuel.
Values are provided for comparison only. To the extent that fuel and energy consumption or CO₂ values are given as ranges, these do not relate to a single, individual car and do not constitute part of the offer. Optional features and accessories can change relevant vehicle parameters such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics which may result in a change in fuel or energy consumption and CO₂ values. Vehicle loading, topography, weather and traffic conditions, as well as individual driving styles, can all affect the actual fuel consumption, energy consumption, electrical range, and CO₂ emissions of a car.
** Important information about the all-electric Porsche models can be found


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Queens is facing some serious infrastructure challenges, according to a new report.
The Center for an Urban Future found the borough has five of the nine worst maintained highways in the city.
Based on a 10-point scale, where 1 to 5 is considered "poor," 6 is "fair," 7 to 8 is "good," and 9 to 10 is "excellent," in 2012, the Jackie Robinson Parkway received a surface rating of 5.8, and the Shore Front Parkway, Cross Bay Parkway Route 25A and Route 24 earned a 6.0.
Overall, highway conditions in the borough have been deteriorating, the report said. In 2008, 38 percent of Queens highways were rated "fair" or "poor." Four years later, 52 percent were in the same shape.
The report, released Tuesday, showed additional infrastructure issues in the borough.
About 30 percent of its streets were in "fair" or "poor" condition.
Other findings showed that Queens New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments have the most deteriorated building façades and roofs, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inspections. Four of the NYCHA complexes in the borough need over $70 million in façade repairs through 2016.
Several of the city's oldest wastewater treatment plants are in eastern Queens, including Jamaica (1943) and Bowery Bay near Flushing (1939), according to the report.
John F. Kennedy International Airport also needs upgrades due to age.
Its facilities are 40 years old on average, "with 63 percent of cargo space considered 'non-viable,' or unfit for modern screening, storage and distribution," the report said.
Queens was not alone in its infrastructure problems.
The report calculated that New York City needs $47 billion over the next four to five years to bring its "aging infrastructure to a state of good repair."
It found that a "significant portion" of the city's bridges, water mains, sewer pipes, school buildings and other important infrastructure is more than 50 years old and "badly" in need of repair.
"New York won't be able to address every one of the city's infrastructure vulnerabilities at this time," said Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future and co-editor of the report. "But if a significant chunk of the city's critical infrastructure is not brought to a state of good repair in the years ahead, it could seriously undermine the city's economic competitiveness and quality of life—and lead to substantial long-term costs."
The aging infrastructure includes 1,000 miles of water mains more than 100 years old; more than 160 bridges across the five boroughs that were built over a century ago; and 6,300 miles of gas mains that are on average, 56 years old.
The report suggests creating new dedicated revenue sources to pay for repairing and modernizing infrastructure.


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HONG KONG, November 06, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Today, IX Asia Indexes Company Limited ('IX Asia Indexes') announced launch of the worldwide real-time dissemination of its ixCrypto Index ("IXCI"). IXCI will be disseminated via Nasdaq Global Index Data Service (GIDS) to reach information service providers and millions of investors in over 85 countries at a 15-second dissemination interval.
IXCI is the flagship project of IX Asia Indexes, as well as the first crypto benchmark index launched in Hong Kong. This enhancement aims to provide a better service level to the investment market in response to the growing demand for digital asset index products in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia.
"We are very grateful to Nasdaq's data services team in the course of our connection to their Global Index Data Service (GIDS). Both the IX and Nasdaq teams have been working hard in the past few months in different time zones to achieve the common goal. We are expecting that the real-time index can satisfy the market needs for launching cryptocurrency index spot, futures, and options products for diversification and hedging purposes.", Irene Wong, CEO of IX Asia Indexes said.
The first index level of the day will be disseminated at 9 A.M. on every Hong Kong trading day, and for every 15 seconds to update until 9 P.M. (and keep updating per 15 seconds until 9 P.M) The real-time IXCI will be available for viewing on the ixCrypto Index official webpage and the Nasdaq Global Index Data Service (GIDS) with the ticker "IXCI".
For more details about the real-time ixCrypto Index, please stay tuned for updates on our website: https://ix-index.com.
For further enquiries, please contact:
Hugo ZHENG +852 5222 1646
(Asian Time) [email protected]
Oriol CAUDEVILLA +852 3595 3638
(European Time) [email protected]
About IX Fintech Group and IX Asia Indexes
IX Asia Indexes Company Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the IX Fintech Group. Aiming to become one of the leading index compilers in Asia, its services in the areas of both real and digital assets cover index consultancy, index design, index calculation and dissemination, and index education. As a key participant of Cyberport Hong Kong, and supporter of the University of Hong Kong ("HKU") Internship and Career Mentorship Program, IX Asia Indexes launched the first Hong Kong cryptocurrency index - ixCrypto Index together with its mentees from HKU in 2018 with growing subscription. The index platform was awarded the ETNet Fintech Award
- Outstanding Crypto Index Platform (Wealth Investment & Management) 2019. ixCrypto Index is created by IX Asia Indexes and licensed to ixFintech for its dissemination.
Website: https://ix-index.com/
About ixCrypto Index
The ixCrypto index ("IXCI") is the first crypto index launched in Hong Kong. It was launched on 12 December 2018. It is denominated in USD with a base value of 1000 and a base date on 3 December 2018. On 1 June 2020, the hourly index was launched. Designed to be easy to understand while providing a good representation of the crypto market, ixCrypto index aims to cover the top 80% of the cumulative free-float adjusted market capitalization in the crypto universe and, at the same time, the crypto currencies should fall within the top 25, ranking by trading volume in the 90 days preceding the review date. The index is to be reviewed quarterly and with a fast entry rule. The daily index level is updated daily on Hong Kong trading day at the ixFintech webpage at 12:00 noon, Hong Kong time. The hourly index is available from 9am-9pm and updated at every :00 of the hour. The 15-second index is available from 9am-9pm and updated every 15 seconds.
About IX Asia Indexes Advisory Committee
To ensure the professionality and impartiality of the index methodologies and operations, ixAsia has established its index advisory committee with representation from different industries, including fund management, exchanges, brokerage, financial blockchain experts, crypto service providers, etc. The committee will meet twice a year to discuss matters relating to the ixAsia Indexes, including to review and to comment the data sources, methodologies, and operations of ixAsia Indexes, to provide guidance to the future development of new ixAsia Indexes and to handle other issues and decisions on an as-needed basis.
Webpage: https://ix-index.com/committee.html
# # #


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2013-14 NBA Win Over/Under Predictions
Hi there. We're back with our annual post offering our predictions for picking NBA regular-season win over/unders.
For the record, we were 5-2 in O/U predictions in 2012-13 and the 71% success rate lifted our lifetime winning percentage since we started The Painted Area to a robust 68.1%.
Here are our year-by-year records for the seven years we've been publishing our picks:
Season TPA 06-07 6-1 07-08 3-4 08-09 5-2 09-10 3-2 10-11 5-2 11-12 5-2 12-13 5-2 Total 32-15**********************
For 2013-14, let's go straight to the data. What we've done below is:
a) sorted each conference in order of the posted over/under line for season wins,
b) provided projected '13-14 wins from ESPN Insider Kevin Pelton's SCHOENE projection system, and
c) provided '12-13 wins.
As always, these are for entertainment purposes only.
EAST (O/U Line - KP - '12-13) MIA 61.5 - 54 - 66 CHI 56.5 - 50 - 45 IND 54.5 - 49 - 49 BKN 52.5 - 50 - 49 NYK 49.5 - 37 - 54 DET 40.5 - 49 - 29 CLE 40.5 - 37 - 24 ATL 39.5 - 44 - 44 WAS 39.5 - 35 - 29 TOR 35.5 - 37 - 34 MIL 28.5 - 32 - 38 BOS 27.5 - 29 - 41 CHA 26.5 - 32 - 21 ORL 23.5 - 23 - 20 PHI 17.5 - 24 - 34 WEST (O/U Line - KP - '12-13) LAC 56.5 - 55 - 56 SAS 55.5 - 60 - 58 HOU 54.5 - 53 - 45 OKC 52.5 - 51 - 60 GSW 51.5 - 42 - 47 MEM 50.5 - 49 - 56 DEN 45.5 - 44 - 57 DAL 43.5 - 44 - 41 MIN 41.5 - 51 - 31 NOH 39.5 - 41 - 27 POR 38.5 - 41 - 33 LAL 36.5 - 35 - 45 SAC 31.5 - 28 - 28 UTH 25.5 - 34 - 43 PHX 20.5 - 20 - 25**********************
Here are the predictions we feel most strongly about this season:
- MIA Under 61.5
- DET Over 40.5
- GSW Under 51.5
- SAC Over 31.5
- CHA Over 26
- NYK Under 49.5
- MEM Over 50.5
MIAMI UNDER 61.5 (66 last season)
The Heat are likely to be the oldest team in the NBA and, if they pull off the threepeat, nearly the oldest champion in league history. Miami is coming off three straight grueling trips to the Finals - trying to become the first team since the '87 Celtics to make it back a fourth straight year.
And they are likely a little worse this season, given that Dwyane Wade is still hurting as the season starts, and they lost Mike Miller and mostly just got older otherwise. Wild cards Greg Oden and/or Michael Beasley are their main hopes for improvement.
Regardless of what you think the Heat will do come playoff time, it's hard to imagine they'll have enough juice and motivation to get back to the 60-win mark in the regular season, especially given how much energy is required to execute their defensive scheme optimally.
Out of seven teams which have chased a threepeat in the last quarter-century, only the '98 Bulls have surpassed 61.5 wins, and they did so with 62 W's, and even that was a decline from an average of 70.5 wins in the previous two seasons. Several threepeat chasers landed in the 57-58 range, and that's about what we expect from these Heat.
DETROIT OVER 40.5 (29 last season)
Three of the top five players in minutes for Detroit last season were Brandon Knight, Kyle Singler and Jason Maxiell. Yes, the parts of the new-look Pistons may not match perfectly, but read that first sentence again. Plug in Brandon Jennings (whom we think is a significant upgrade over Knight) and Josh Smith, plus a larger role for Andre Drummond (7th in minutes last year), and we think the talent upgrade is too massive to ignore.
We expect this team to be a solid 40-plus win team, in the running for the 5th or 6th seed. Our only area of concern would be that we wish they'd hired a better coach than Maurice Cheeks. George Karl would've been a great fit for this club, and Brian Shaw would've been preferable, as well.
GOLDEN STATE UNDER 51.5 (47 last season)
We love the Andre Iguodala acquisition, really we do. But departures Carl Landry and Jarrett Jack played significant roles last year. And as exciting as Golden State's surprise playoff run was, it was heavily dependent on Andrew Bogut being healthy enough to provide elite interior defensive play.
This is really a bet against Bogut's health as much as anything. The big Aussie has averaged just 43 games played over the last five seasons. Without him, the Warriors' frontcourt gets mighty thin, and may not be able to stop anybody. They'd rely on Jermaine O'Neal, a man with an equally troubling recent history of health.
Other concerns include the loss of assistant coach Mike Malone, who had major responsibility and was the architect of the team's improved defense, and that the Warriors had the point differential of just a 44-win team (+0.9).
But this pick will likely all come down to Bogut. If he plays 70+ games - something he's done twice in eight seasons, and not since 2007-08 - this pick'll be in trouble. If he's under that, we'll probably be right.
SACRAMENTO OVER 31.5 (28 last season)
Speaking of new Sacramento coach Mike Malone, this pick is mainly about him. The Kings ranked 29th in defense last season, and we expect Malone to improve that standing significantly. This is a team which played very good offense after the All-Star break/Thomas Robinson trade last year. We're a little concerned that going from Tyreke Evans to Ben McLemore is a talent downgrade, but have greater belief in Malone's impact on D.
CHARLOTTE OVER 26 (21 last season)
Again, a positive coaching change plays a big role here. Charlotte has hired Steve Clifford, who is a Van Gundy/Thibodeau disciple, and the early returns have been startling. The Bobcats have surrendered just 84 points per game in preseason (in approximately 95 possessions per game by my estimation) after ranking dead last in defense last season, giving up about 109 points per 100 possessions.
Yes, we know: it's preseason, it's preseason, it's preseason. But Charlotte doesn't have to come anywhere near the elite defensive numbers it's been posting in October. If the MikeCats can simply get up around 20th in the league on D, they should surpass 26 wins easily.
Further, all the evidence suggests this team should be better. Al Jefferson and Cody Zeller are replacing Byron Mullins, and there are some very young players who should show improvement, in addition to what we believe will be a strong coaching change. We'd expect low-30s in Ws, and wouldn't be surprised by mid-30s.
NEW YORK UNDER 49.5 (54 last season)
The Knicks have the biggest spread between their O/U line and Pelton's SCHOENE projection (37 wins). For a team that was so dependent upon three-point shooting for its offense and Tyson Chandler for its defense, we worry that the Knicks have replaced some sharpshooters with league-average shooters and we worry about Chandler being able to stay healthy. Further, the East has gotten stronger at the top, with the Nets, Bulls and Pacers all improving. Not sure we'd predict New York to regress as far as SCHOENE does - we still see them as a 5 or 6 seed, but probably in the mid-40s rather than low-50s after their charmed season in '12-13.
MEMPHIS OVER 50.5 (56 last season)
We don't entirely understand why the conventional wisdom seems to be down on Memphis. This is largely the same club which won 56 last season, with Marc Gasol and Mike Conley still in their primes.
Yes, Zach Randolph's age is a concern, but we like how Le Grizz fortified their frontcourt depth by flipping Darrell Arthur into Kosta Koufos, and believe Ed Davis will be ready to offer more support this season. We also think they've patched some gaping holes in their roster by adding Mike Miller to provide shooting from the wing, and Nick Calathes to contribute at backup point guard. The transition from a solid veteran head coach in Lionel Hollins to a rookie like Dave Joerger is always a variable, but we think Joerger has the makings of a good one.
Alright, folks, just four days until tip off. The League is back, rejoice.


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Rodale Institute
Rodale Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach.
For more than sixty years, we've been researching the best practices of organic agriculture and sharing our findings with farmers and scientists throughout the world, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating consumers about how going organic is the healthiest option for people and the planet.
Our research
Our Farming Systems Trial® is the longest-running side-by-side U.S. study comparing conventional chemical agriculture with organic methods. What have we found? Organic yields match conventional and outperform them in years of drought and environmental distress. New areas of study include rates of carbon sequestration in chemical versus organic plots and new techniques for weed suppression.
Our outreach
From field days, to workshops, to exclusive online tools for farmers and original articles, Rodale Institute has been sharing our findings with farmers, scientists, policy-makers, gardeners and consumers the world over.


text: It's official, the Tyan S2466 nodes get "biggest PITA award" for systems that I've used. The two nodes that were crashing frequently had their power supplies replaced and then they were stable for a couple of months. Now they've both become unstable again. Evil motherboard juju eating power supplies? Who knows? Not that I can make them crash at will, oh no, that would be too easy. cpuburn (20 minutes) doesn't even make them hiccup They run memtest86+ 24 hours without a glitch. The problem never moved with memory anyway. but leave them running linux, doing not much of anything, and you never know when they're going to come down. Sometimes there's an oops, sometimes not. When there is an oops it can be in any piece of software. Today I upgraded the BIOS to 4.06 and, naturally, it didn't fix any of the many little annoyances the S2466N produces, ie, "who me boot?". I don't seriously expect it to fix the unstability. So rather than keep trying to fix these monsters I'm starting to think about the cheapest way to keep the cluster running by replacing just the mobo/CPU with something else (as I'm not expecting enough $$$ anytime soon to do more, and obtaining Athlon MPs and S2466N mobos now is problematical anyway.) I'll happily give up Tyan's serial line bios access for a system where I don't have to employ that feature quite so often! The S2466N is an ATX form factor, each one has one Athlon MP 2200+ and 1 Gb of 2100 DDR RAM, a 40G ATA disk, a floppy and a little PCI graphics card in a 2U case. If I could find a nice mobo/CPU combo for, oh, <$200 that could replace the S2466N and Athlon MP, and still do ECC, then I'd probably go that route to patch systems up as they break. Best if it has at least as much cache as the MP though. Is there anything out there fitting that description? Historically ECC support isn't something that shows up on cheap mobos but maybe on some low end Athlon 64 variant? Thanks, David Mathog mathog at caltech.edu Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech


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Are comic books really at risk?
Here's an odd but interesting scrap of info picked up by RadarOnline: The growing popularity of e-books could mean the demise of the comic book.
Or at least that's what DC Comics executive John Cunningham is reported to have told a panel in New York. "If 10% of the readers migrate to an e-device, that is gonna throw off the economics for 60% of the [comic] books that are published in this country," according to Cunningham.
The RadarOnline piece also quotes Advertising Age, which suggests that although the sales of graphic novels are currently growing, they are expected to decline as more readers turn to online content using their iPhones and Kindles.
Comic books publishers like Marvel and DC Comics will remain "merchandising powerhouses," predicts RadarOnline, but they'll no longer be printing and delivering comics.


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How Many
Here is an exciting way to prepare the heart of every young person in your congregation for Christmas. Behind each of the 24 windows on the front of these greeting cards are important symbols and pictures—as well as a Bible citation—highlighting the true meaning of Christmas. These are folded cards with a poem inside. Envelopes sold separately (Code POW).


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January 4, 2011 at 6:30pm to February 23, 2012 at 8pm – International Tennis Centre - Las Vegas, NV International Tennis Centre Winter LeagueBurrrr!!!! It's cold outside! Woooossshh!! It's windy!Play tennis indoors at Las Vegas' only 5 star indoor tennis facility!Join our in-house league and immed… Organized by Rob Wilner | Type: winter, league, for, all, men/women, 3.0, to, 5.0, (see, details)
January 7, 2011 at 8pm to April 22, 2011 at 8pm – Montgomery County (Philadelphia Suburbs) PA World TeamTennis 3.5 league is looking in which one male and one female to join a formed team. We play on friday nights at Frog Hollow RC in Worcester from 8-9:30pm. The format is 1 set singles, on… Organized by Angelika Sadar | Type: tennis, friday, night, league
January 15, 2011 at 10am to December 31, 2013 at 10am – North Austin Doubles Play Require RSVP Organized by janet Q | Type: meet, up, for, doubles
April 2, 2011 at 10am to April 3, 2011 at 7pm – US Looking for players this weekend from morning to the afternoon. Organized by Dean Mullen | Type: match, or, meetup
April 3, 2011 from 8am to 11:30am – Clark High School Tennis Courts Everyone is welcome to come out to the weekly Aces Rally held at Clark HS Tennis Courts..weather is heating up and its time for your game to do the same..beginners to experienced all welcome to come… Organized by SATennisguy | Type: rally, doubles, hit, around, singles
© 2024 Created by Mark / The Mayor. Powered by


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Devel::PartialDump - Partial dumping of data structures, optimized for argument printing.
version 0.20
use Devel::PartialDump; sub foo { print "foo called with args: " . Devel::PartialDump->new->dump(@_); } use Devel::PartialDump qw(warn); # warn is overloaded to create a concise dump instead of stringifying $some_bad_data warn "this made a boo boo: ", $some_bad_data
This module is a data dumper optimized for logging of arbitrary parameters.
It attempts to truncate overly verbose data, in a way that is hopefully more useful for diagnostics warnings than
warn Dumper(@stuff);
Unlike other data dumping modules there are no attempts at correctness or cross referencing, this is only meant to provide a slightly deeper look into the data in question.
There is a default recursion limit, and a default truncation of long lists, and the dump is formatted on one line (new lines in strings are escaped), to aid in readability.
You can enable it temporarily by importing functions like warn, croak etc to get more informative errors during development, or even use it as:
BEGIN { local $@; eval "use Devel::PartialDump qw(...)" }
to get DWIM formatting only if it's installed, without introducing a dependency.
"foo" => "bar"
foo: "bar"
foo => "bar", gorch => [ 1, "bah" ]
foo: "bar", gorch: [ 1, "bah" ]
[ { foo => ["bar"] } ]
[ { foo: ARRAY(0x9b265d0) } ]
[ 1 .. 10 ]
[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ... ]
"foo" . chr(1)
The maximum character length of the dump.
Anything bigger than this will be truncated.
Not defined by default.
The maximum number of elements (array elements or pairs in a hash) to print.
Defaults to 6.
The maximum level of recursion.
Defaults to 2.
Whether or not to let objects stringify themselves, instead of using "StrVal" in overload to avoid side effects.
Defaults to false (no overloading).
Whether or not to autodetect named args as pairs in the main dump function. If this attribute is true, and the top level value list is even sized, and every odd element is not a reference, then it will dumped as pairs instead of a list.
All exports are optional, nothing is exported by default.
This module uses Sub::Exporter, so exports can be renamed, curried, etc.
See the various methods for behavior documentation.
These methods will use $Devel::PartialDump::default_dumper as the invocant if the first argument is not blessed and isa Devel::PartialDump, so they can be used as functions too.
Particularly warn can be used as a drop in replacement for the built in warn:
warn "blah blah: ", $some_data;
by importing
use Devel::PartialDump qw(warn);
$some_data will be have some of it's data dumped.
The default dumper object to use for export style calls.
Can be assigned to to alter behavior globally.
This is generally useful when using the warn export as a drop in replacement for CORE::warn.
A wrapper for dump that prints strings plainly.
Like warn, but instead of returning the value from warn it returns its arguments, so it can be used in the middle of an expression.
Note that
my $x = show foo();
will actually evaluate foo in list context, so if you only want to dump a single element and retain scalar context use
my $x = show_scalar foo();
which has a prototype of $ (as opposed to taking a list).
This is similar to the venerable Ingy's fabulous and amazing XXX module.
Drop in replacements for Carp exports, that format their arguments like warn.
Returns a one line, human readable, concise dump of @stuff.
If called in void context, will warn with the dump.
Truncates the dump according to max_length if specified.
Dump @stuff using the various formatting functions.
Dump as pairs returns comma delimited pairs with => between the key and the value.
Dump as list returns a comma delimited dump of the values.
The various formatting methods.
You can override these to provide a custom format.
format_array and format_hash recurse with $depth + 1 into dump_as_list and dump_as_pairs respectively.
$depth + 1
format_ref delegates to format_array and format_hash and does the max_depth tracking. It will simply stringify the ref if the recursion limit has been reached.
Bugs may be submitted through the RT bug tracker (or email@example.com).
There is also a mailing list available for users of this distribution, at http://lists.perl.org/list/moose.html.
There is also an irc channel available for users of this distribution, at #moose on irc.perl.org.
יובל קוג'מן (Yuval Kogman) <email@example.com>
Karen Etheridge <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Florian Ragwitz <email@example.com>
Steven Lee <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Leo Lapworth <email@example.com>
Jesse Luehrs <firstname.lastname@example.com>
David Golden <email@example.com>
Paul Howarth <email@example.com>
This software is copyright (c) 2008 by יובל קוג'מן (Yuval Kogman).
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
To install Devel::PartialDump, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm Devel::PartialDump
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Devel::PartialDump
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.


text:
Among the growing number of 'Top 10 lists' at Merriam-Webster online dictionary are two sets on confusing words. Here are a couple of exercises based on them.
This blog is aimed mainly at advanced students of English as a foreign / second language, although it will hopefully also be of some interest to teachers. I intend it to be a mishmash of lessons, exercises and the occasional opinionated rant about the English language.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Pronouns and determiners - some, any, no, none, somebody, anybody, nobody etc
Practise using some, any, somebody, anybody etc, with these gapfull exercises. And also check out some related idioms and expressions.
esl quiz,
Friday, December 23, 2011
More Christmas cracker jokes - Matching quizzes
Christmas cracker jokes are written almost to a formula, and make great use of corny puns. We like to groan at how awful they are, but they are a quintessential part of a British Christmas. Some are on Christmas themes, many are not. I found most of the jokes here in several places on the Internet, so I don't think I'm treading on anybody's copyright toes.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Confusing words - Relations, relatives and relationships
These three nouns often have very similar meanings, but are sometimes used in slightly different ways. Judging by the number of questions asked about them on forums, learners can find them quite confusing. In fact I think it's even difficult for a native speaker to explain the difference; we just trust our instincts. So let's try to work them out.
confusing words,
esl quiz,
Saturday, December 10, 2011
A Passive Christmas Day
A short gapfill exercise to practise the passive
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Exploring grammar - verb types
A recent discussion at GrammarGirl (link below) about the active voice talked a lot about unaccusative verbs and semantic patients in its explanation. I'm not convinced of the wisdom of using these specialist linguistic terms on a website read by a general audience of native speakers and learners. I have a slight suspicion that more than a few will have been more confused at the end than they were at the beginning.
But in the interests of understanding, I've tried to put these terms into some sort of scheme, while at the same time looking at different terms used for types of verbs, both by linguists and by more general grammar books. I hope this will be interesting, but I'm not suggesting that there is any need for the general reader or learner to learn these specialist terms.
Disclaimer - Please don't take this as any kind of gospel. As usual, I make no claims to be either a grammarian or a linguist. This is simply my way of trying to work it all out. Any linguists who might happen to stumble on this are welcome to let me know if I've gone wrong.
We'll be looking briefly at the following:
- Main (lexical) verbs and auxiliary (helping) verbs
- Transitive, intransitive verbs and linking verbs
- Subjects and objects, agents and targets (patients)
- Ambitransitive and ergative verbs
- Unaccusative verbs and unergative verbs
- Empty verbs and inchoative verbs
- Dynamic and stative verbs
- Finite and non finite verbs forms
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CHICAGO -- The American Medical Association's policymaking House of Delegates wrapped up its annual meeting with votes on a wide variety of subjects, from ICD-10 to sugar-sweetened drinks to gun control.
A key concern for the House is the move to ICD-10. Delegates voted that the association should lobby Congress and Medicare to ask that they require health insurers to give physicians flexibility for the first 2 years after implementation of the ICD-10 coding system, scheduled for October 2014.
During that time, according to the resolution, payers should not be allowed to deny payments to physicians for coding errors and should be required to provide feedback on why claims were denied.
Many payers have said they won't pay for unspecified codes -- a common practice if a diagnosis has not yet been determined -- or miscoded visits.
Doctors have bemoaned the switch to ICD-10 -- short for International Classification of Diseases, version 10 -- because of the tremendous increase in complexity from the current ICD-9. The number of diagnostic codes will increase from nearly 14,000 to about 69,000. The number of procedure codes will jump from around 3,000 to roughly 87,000.
The AMA will continue its fight to bypass ICD-10 completely, and go directly to ICD-11.
SGR Repeal
Another key concern for the delegates -- as it has been in previous years -- was repeal of Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, which determines the way physicians are paid in the program.
Doctors should be free to determine the basic method of payment that best fits their practice as the AMA lobbies for a replacement to Medicare's physician payment formula, delegates said. The AMA's policy should be to "reflect and preserve the diversity of physician-led practice models."
Lawmakers in Congress are wrestling with the issue -- payment models that reward value, quality, and efficiency have been proposed.
Delegates also voted to amend AMA policy as regards to the Affordable Care Act, calling on the organization to track the ACA's impact on health costs, coverage, and physician practice as the law moves toward full implementation starting next year.
Sugar-Sweetened Drink Ban
The AMA should work to remove sugar-sweetened beverages from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), delegates voted.
"It's been shown that over half of children's intake of bad calories -- 53% to 55% -- come from the beverages they drink," Texas delegate Gary Floyd, MD, said. "We need to set this as a good example."
Some delegates complained that removing such beverages from federal aid programs would cause an undue burden on families, a point others strongly rejected.
"The point of SNAP is to provide nutritionally healthy food to these children," American Academy of Pediatrics delegate Sam Rosman, MD, said. "If they're spending those SNAP benefits on sugar-sweetened beverages they're getting empty calories and not getting the core nutrients these kids need."
The AMA House also voted to support a ban on high-energy stimulant drinks to children under age 18.
Gun-Control Measures
In another vote, the House of Delegates directed the AMA to lobby Congress to study gun-related deaths by funding and using state and national firearm injury databases, including the National Violent Data Reporting System.
Physicians should also be free to have open communication with patients about firearm safety and gun locks in their homes, according to House resolutions.
The measures were passed by unanimous consent with no debate.
A number of gun-control measures introduced were pulled from consideration just before the start of the meeting.
Pharmacy Questions
Another resolution -- labeling inquiries from pharmacies to verify the medical rationale behind prescriptions, diagnoses, and treatment plans to be interference with physician practice -- was a reflection of the extra work such requests demand as well as a stand for practice autonomy.
Pharmacies -- mostly chains -- have increasingly been querying doctors' offices to double-check the validity of prescriptions before filling them. The practice is primarily in response to a Drug Enforcement Administration crackdown on pharmacy dispensing of narcotics.
A resolution passed by the House deems these pharmacy calls "inappropriate" and directs AMA staff to voice physician concerns to pharmacies, the DEA, and other federal and state regulators.


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On behalf of the entire Typesafe team, a huge thanks to all who attended the fourth annual Scala Days conference last week! We had such a fantastic time with the community, attending sessions and jamming out during our live karaoke concert in the Hudson Theatre. We hope you enjoyed yourself, found the sessions informative and valuable and had the opportunity to meet and chat with members of the community.
For those of you who were unable to attend the conference or some of the more popular sessions, Parleys will upload all keynote videos and session recordings in the coming weeks; we'll update the community once they are complete! We've also created a Facebook album with some photos from our time in NYC; if you haven't done so already, please "Like" us on Facebook, check out some pictures from the event and tag yourselves! There are some awesome shots from the keynotes, various parties and presentations.
At Scala Days we launched a new version of Typesafe Activator that enables anyone to contribute templates which developers can use to learn and explore new technologies. Already we have thirteen templates in Activator with more on the way! Check them out and contribute your own!
Lastly, a big thanks to all our speakers and sponsors for supporting the conference, we could not have pulled together such an exciting and engaging event without you! We hope you found the conference beneficial and hope you will continue to be involved in the community for years to come!
As Martin Odersky mentioned in his keynotes, let's continue highlighting the simplicity of Scala, making it the language of choice for those picking up new languages.
Thank you, from your Scala Days team at Typesafe!


text:
Auction House Details
Jay Sugarman Auction
Auction House Name | Jay Sugarman Auction |
Site URL | https://www.JaySugarman.com |
About Us | This Collection has taken decades and countless hours to seek, obtain and organize. It encompasses over (20) individual collections of hard to find, Rare and Unique Collectables. These unique collections are cherished by some of the wealthiest people in the world. Certain categories of this collection offer an extraordinary possibility for the highest bidder's to qualify to enter the Guinness Book of Worlds Records. Each category will be sold in its entirety "Bulk Lot's Only" These are incredibly well put together "Bulk Lots". These are some of the largest collections in the world of their kind. This sale merits the attention of: Museums, Institutional Investors, Global Historians, Bibliographers, Libraries, Governments and of course Private Collectors. Main Categories: * Autographed Books (7,100+) * Antiquarian Books (679+) * Collectible/Of Value Books (103) * Autographed Letters (1,430+, LH, ALS & Others) * Autographed Photo (22,529+, all types & genres, 20% framed) * Autographed TC's (60,747+, 70% general & 30% C.A.I.'s) * Autographed Items, Outside the Norm (7,859+) * Collector Plates (2007, some sets, many in original box) * Vintage Sheet Music (2,000+, original, vintage, late 1800's-early 1980's) * First Day Covers (late 1800's-1960's, many in ornate binders) * Movie Posters (1,907, with an added volume of laminated placemats) |
Who do I contact if I have questions? | Scott Grasso 954.946.9951 |
City | Miami |
State | Florida |
Country | United States |
Zipcode | 33179 |
Contact Number | |
Buyer's Fee | 18% |
Consigner's Fee |


text:
E. T. John was President of the Birkenhead Eisteddfod, and he was also President of the Union of Welsh Societies. It was with the machinery of this Union that he organised the meetings of the Celts. He told the secretary, D. Rhys Phillips of Swansea that he did not like the term Pan-Celtic, and would prefer to talk of a Celtic Conference and an ultimate Celtic Union or League. He was ambitious in his ideas, having two Lords and an Honourable to preside at different meetings, issuing invitations to 300 people, including both Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops, Members of Parliament, all the Welsh ministers of religion from Merseyside, besides the editors of all relevant newspapers. At the Reception, Scottish Pipers, a harpist and vocalists entertained the guests. Delegates from Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Brittany and Wales came to the conference. It was decided to form a Celtic Union and provisional committee was elected to make the arrangements for the next conference. The annual meeting was to be held during the National Eisteddfod.
The Congress came into being during the National Eisteddfod, and continued for some years in close connection with it. Some leading Breton and Irishmen were already members of the Gorsedd of Bards and used to attend regularly. Lord Ashbourne of Trinity College, Dublin addressed the assembly in Welsh at Corwen in 1919. Henry Jenner, a Cornishman who worked in the British Museum Library was received into the Gorsedd in 1904 with the Bardic title of Gwas Myhal . The Breton poet Taldir, Francois Jaffrennou had already headed a delegation seeking permission to found Gorsedd Llydaw in 1900.
A group photograph was taken at Birkenhead, but unfortunately it has not been traced. A photograph which has survived is one taken in the Isle of Man where the Congress met in 1921. It was a grand assembly. Among those who can be identified are Mr. and Mrs. E. T. John, Miss Agnes O'Farrelly, Miss Mai Roberts, Miss Mona Douglas, Dr. Douglas Hyde and the Reverend J. Dyfnallt Owen. These are names which occur frequently in the correspondence between E. T. John and the secretaries of the various countries. Miss Mai Roberts was E. T. John's Private Secretary from 1917 until his death in 1931. Her letters reveal a most pleasing personality, tactful, efficient and humorous. Her sister, Miss Priscilla M. Roberts was later to become the secretary of the Welsh Branch and an active member for many years.
Miss Agnes O'Farrelly took a prominent part in early arrangements, and in 1925 she was appointed Honorary General Secretary. Up till then, D. Rhys Phillips had acted as secretary, but presumably he did not attend committee meetings, and he was dismissed by E. T. John, according to a summary of his achievements. Agnes O'Farrelly had two assistant secretaries, A. O. Roberts of Penrhyndeudraeth and Pierre Mocaer of Brest. The latter was a well-known literary figure, writing in his native language, in French and in Welsh. Agnes O'Farrelly was a lecturer in Irish at University College, Dublin. She had been on the executive committee of the Irish League and of the Ulster Gaelic Union and had published works in Irish and in English. Her voluminous correspondence, in her flamboyant handwriting is in the E. T. John collection at the National Library of Wales. IN a group photograph taken during the Bangor Congress, 1927, she can be seen as a middle-aged lady in a cloche hat, in contrast with Mona Douglas, a much younger person, also in a cloche had, and a very youthful, pretty Mai Roberts.
In 1925 the Congress was held in Dublin, where Agnes O'Farrelly had secured the services of Dr. Douglas Hyde, the future President of …ire, and Dr. Osborne Bergin as speakers. She asked E. T. John for the names and addresses of the principals of the four colleges of the University of Wales. "You will see they are an extraordinarily non-Celtic crowd" was E. T. John's comment when he sent her the list. M. Jaffrennou and his wife were anxious to attend, but could not afford d the expense, as in France everyone was "hit hard over the present financial crisis". Ireland was prepared to give them hospitality if money could be found to pay their travelling expenses. "They are the most picturesque figures we can have," wrote Agnes O'Farrelly with her usual enthusiasm. Replying, E. T. John agreed that funds should be available for their travelling expenses, but he had had to promise their fares to Ernest Rhys, Dr. Vaughan Thomas and Saunders Lewis, as well as free accommodation in Dublin. Immediately after the Congress, demands for expenses came pouring in. Dan Matthews who had brought his drama company across, wrote complaining at the delay, and in August, Ernest Rhys was still awaiting his cheque from Dublin. Jaffrennou was particularly aggrieved, casting doubts on the sincerity of the officers. Agnes O'Farrelly sent a cheque for £45, ("which we all think excessive, but to which we are committed, alas…") to E. T. John, asking him to send it on to the Bretons, who were "a heavy charge, but we have learned a lesson, and in a way it was worth getting them".
The Treasurer of the Congress was Lachlan MacBean, editor of the Fifeshire Advertiser and author of many publications. One of the most useful reference books he compiled was The Celtic Who's Who (1921). In the Preface he states that the need for such a compilation arose when the Congress was held in Edinburgh in May 1920.
Although Cornwall had been admitted as a member country of the Pan-Celtic Association in Caernarfon in 1904, no Cornish representative was invited to the initial meeting in Birkenhead in 1917, and no mention of the country occurs in the early letters. This was probably because no one spoke the Cornish language. However the matter had evidently been brought before the Congress and accordingly E. T. John wrote to R. Morton Nance of Carbis Bay asking for a venue for the Congress to meet in 1926. Nance was taken by surprise, and asked for further information about the Congress, and was told that Miss Mona Douglas of the Isle of Man would come to help and advise them. Later Nance wrote to say that an Old Cornwall Society had been formed in Penzance, and he promised to organise a Congress. But in July, at the height of the "Cornish season" he foresaw great difficulty in accommodating the Members. Writing to Professor W. J. Gruffyddof Cardiff, E. T. John invited him to address the Congress, at the same time acknowledging that "You regard the area as to negligible a factor to merit this measure of attention", but he had two things in mind. The first was to pay a compliment to Dr. Henry Jenner, Gwas Myhal of the Gorsedd and the author of the Handbook of the Cornish Language (1904) among other books and pamphlets of Celtic interest. The second factor was that Wales required another twelve months in which to prepare for an adequate Congress. W. J. Gruffydd was unable to oblige, so E. T. John wrote inviting the Reverend G. Hartwell Jones to speak on Early Celtic Missionaries. The choice of subject, he explained was unusually difficult, as the main interest of the Congress was in the Celtic languages, and "that is so irrelevant to local conditions". Despite all the preparations, the Congress had to be cancelled because of the General Strike in May.
Cornwall was to send a representative to the Bangor Congress in 1927. Charles Henderson wrote to Mai Roberts about "a remarkable man named Watson who lives at Redruth… who has the right pronunciation and accent. Unfortunately his position—a working gardener—does not enable him to travel on the score of expense." He had learnt French and Breton by associating with the onion-sellers.
While the preparations for the Bangor Congress were in full swing, a query reached Mai Roberts from Scotland; was the Congress to be held in Bangor or in Brittany? they Audi nominated delegates to a Breton festival. Mai wrote back stating categorically "The official Congress is the one that meets in Bangor July 18-27… the Brittany Congress is a whim of M. Jaffrennou and most unimportant… Scotland is the only Celtic area which is to be represented there." Nevertheless such was the appeal in Scotland of the Breton organisers, that Neil Ross of Laggan maintained that they "had stolen a march on Bangor." Dr. Mary Williams of Swansea wrote regarding Jaffrennou's "opposition" Congress: "I feel I ought to say that from the Breton scholar's point of view, he would rank in Brittany with such men as Morieu or Cadrawd in this country, good Welshman, but not of the first rank."
In those spacious days, the meetings of the Congress usually lasted about ten days. Mai Roberts was surprised that Glasgow proposed to contain the Congress of 1929 inside one week. "I explained to them," she reported to E. T. John, "that the delegates from other Celtic countries would never come as far as Glasgow for such a short time, and that we generally found that ten days were far too short for all that required to be done." Scotland were inviting 28 delegates, ten each from Ireland and Wales, six from Brittany and one each from the Isle of Man and Cornwall. The National Party of Scotland made tentative enquiries before the Glasgow Congress, whether anything could be done there to further the interests of the Party. E. T. John explained the non-political nature of the Congress, but inviting those interested to come to hear the new President, Dr. Douglas Hyde. However, when he was discussing whom to invite to speak for Wales with Mai Roberts earlier in the year, he concurred the choice of Saunders Lewis, "the most capable critic of Modern Welsh Poetry", and added that his visit to Glasgow might "enable him to come into closer and fuller touch with the Scottish Nationalist Movement."
Ambitious meetings of the Congress continued to be held during the thirties. De Valera consented to become Patron and Agnes O'Farrelly continued as secretary. In 1935, when Cardiff was the venue, Mortimer Wheeler gave a lantern lecture on Maiden Castle. During a Banquet at the Park Hotel, the B. B. C. Western Region broadcast the proceedings.
In Edinburgh conference in 1937, Dr. Pol DiverrÈs represented Brittany and read a paper on The Situation of the Breton Language. He had been on the staff of the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth and was then on the staff of the University College, Swansea. Mme DiverrÈe was a Welshwoman and a notable singer. Mrs. Eluned Bebb had a snapshot photograph of them, with their son Armand taken at the Quimper Congress in 1924. With them is Ambrose Bebb, wearing a broad-brimmed Breton hat; and Mai Roberts. Dr. DiverrÈs delivered a lecture on The Isle of Man in early Welsh Literature at the Congress on the island in 1938, and R. Morton Nance spoke on the Cornish language. At that Congress, simultaneous meetings were held in different halls, so that members had a choice of lectures, debates and discussions. It was a very well-attended Congress, with a large Welsh delegation.
Cornwall was particularly unfortunate in the choice of dates. After the cancellation in 1926, the next date chosen was September 1939. It was not until 1950 that Cornwall managed to act as host to the Congress. A group-photograph of the assembly at Truro was printed in the Souvenir Programme of the Penzance Congress 1982. The Cornish Gorsedd, however had been inaugurated at Boscawen-Un in 1928 by the Archdruid Pedrog, when Henry Jenner was installed as Barth Mur .
During the fifties the Welsh Branch ceased to function for a while and no delegates attended the Congress at Truro in 1956. A deputation went to the National Eisteddfod at Langefni, in 1957, seeking to revive interest. Professor J. E. Caerwyn Williams was appointed President, Mrs. Eluned Bebb, Treasurer and Miss Priscilla M. Roberts, Secretary. Since then the Branch has been attending Congresses regularly and acting as host in Aberystwyth 1960, Cardiff 1967, and Bangor 1972, Carmarthen 1978 and this year again in Aberystwyth.
Mari Ellis